Original caption: "Convoy WS-12: A Vought SB2U Vindicator scout bomber from USS Ranger (CV-4) flies anti-submarine patrol over the convoy, while it was en route to Cape Town, South Africa, 27 November 1941. The convoy appears to be making a formation turn from column to line abreast. Two-stack transports in the first row are USS West Point (AP-23) -- left --; USS Mount Vernon (AP-22) and USS Wakefield (AP-21). Heavy cruisers, on the right side of the first row and middle of the second, are USS Vincennes (CA-44) and USS Quincy (CA-39). Single-stack transports in the second row are USS Leonard Wood (AP-25) and USS Joseph T. Dickman (AP-26)."

Date

27 November 1941

Source

U.S. Navy Naval History Center [1] Photo #: 80-G-464654; also U.S. National Museum of Naval Aviation photo No. 1996.253.2152 [2]

1.
Anti-submarine warfare
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Anti-submarine warfare is a branch of underwater warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, or other submarines to find, track and deter, damage or destroy enemy submarines. Successful anti-submarine warfare depends on a mix of sensor and weapon technology, training, sophisticated sonar equipment for first detecting, then classifying, locating and tracking the target submarine is a key element of ASW. To destroy submarines both the torpedo and mine are used, launched from air, surface and underwater platforms, other means of destruction have been used in the past but are now obsolete. ASW also involves protecting friendly ships, the first self-propelled torpedo was invented in 1863 and launched from surface craft. The first submarine with a torpedo was Nordenfelt I built in 1884-1885, in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5, the submarine was a significant threat. By the start of the First World War nearly 300 submarines were in service, some warships were fitted with an armoured belt as protection against torpedoes. There were, however, no means to detect submerged U-boats, the Royal Navy torpedo establishment, HMS Vernon, studied explosive grapnel sweeps, these sank four or five U-boats in the First World War. A similar approach featured a string of 70 lb charges on a cable, fired electrically. Also tried were dropping 18.5 lb hand-thrown guncotton bombs, the Lance Bomb was developed, also, this featured a 35–40 lb cone-shaped steel drum on a 5 ft shaft, intended to be thrown at a submarine. Firing Lyddite shells, or using trench mortars, was tried, use of nets to ensnare U-boats was also examined, as was a destroyer, HMS Starfish, fitted with a spar torpedo. Problems with the lanyards tangling and failing to function led to the development of a chemical pellet trigger as the Type B and these were effective at a distance of around 20 ft. The best concept arose in a 1913 RN Torpedo School report, describing a device intended for countermining, at Admiral John Jellicoes request, the standard Mark II mine was fitted with a hydrostatic pistol preset for 45 ft firing, to be launched from a stern platform. Weighing 1,150 lb, and effective at 100 ft, the mine was a potential hazard to the dropping ship. During the First World War, submarines were a major menace and they operated in the Baltic, North Sea, Black Sea and Mediterranean as well as the North Atlantic. Previously they had limited to relatively calm and protected waters. The vessels used to them were a range of small, fast surface ships using guns. They mainly relied on the fact a submarine of the day was often on the surface for a range of reasons, the first approach to protect warships was chainlink nets strung from the sides of battleships, as defense against torpedoes. Nets were also deployed across the mouth of a harbour or naval base to stop submarines entering or to stop torpedoes of the Whitehead type fired against ships, British warships were fitted with a ram with which to sink submarines, and U-15 was thus sunk in August 1914

2.
Battle of the Atlantic
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The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest continuous military campaign in World War II, running from 1939 to the defeat of Germany in 1945. At its core was the Allied naval blockade of Germany, announced the day after the declaration of war and it was at its height from mid-1940 through to the end of 1943. The convoys, coming mainly from North America and predominantly going to the United Kingdom and these forces were aided by ships and aircraft of the United States from September 13,1941. The Germans were joined by submarines of the Italian Royal Navy after their Axis ally Italy entered the war on June 10,1940, as an island nation, the United Kingdom was highly dependent on imported goods. Britain required more than a million tons of imported material per week in order to be able to survive and fight. In essence, the Battle of the Atlantic was a war, the Allied struggle to supply Britain. From 1942 onwards, the Axis also sought to prevent the build-up of Allied supplies, the defeat of the U-boat threat was a pre-requisite for pushing back the Axis. The outcome of the battle was a victory for the Allies—the German blockade failed—but at great cost,3,500 merchant ships and 175 warships were sunk for the loss of 783 U-boats. The name Battle of the Atlantic was coined by Winston Churchill in February 1941 and it has been called the longest, largest, and most complex naval battle in history. The campaign started immediately after the European war began, during the so-called Phoney War and it involved thousands of ships in more than 100 convoy battles and perhaps 1,000 single-ship encounters, in a theatre covering millions of square miles of ocean. The Allies gradually gained the hand, overcoming German surface raiders by the end of 1942 and defeating the U-boats by mid-1943. The first meeting of the Cabinets Battle of the Atlantic Committee was on March 19, Churchill claimed to have coined the phrase Battle of the Atlantic shortly before Alexanders speech, but there are several examples of earlier usage. Following the use of unrestricted submarine warfare by Germany in the First World War, countries tried to limit, even abolish, the effort failed. or active resistance to visit or search. This made restrictions on submarines effectively moot, in 1939, the Kriegsmarine lacked the strength to challenge the combined British Royal Navy and French Navy for command of the sea. Instead, German naval strategy relied on commerce raiding using capital ships, armed merchant cruisers, submarines and these ships immediately attacked British and French shipping. U-30 sank the ocean liner SS Athenia within hours of the declaration of war—in breach of her orders not to sink passenger ships, much of the early German anti-shipping activity involved minelaying by destroyers, aircraft and U-boats off British ports. With the outbreak of war, the British and French immediately began a blockade of Germany, the Royal Navy quickly introduced a convoy system for the protection of trade that gradually extended out from the British Isles, eventually reaching as far as Panama, Bombay and Singapore. Convoys allowed the Royal Navy to concentrate its escorts near the one place the U-boats were guaranteed to be found, each convoy consisted of between 30 and 70 mostly unarmed merchant ships

3.
Convoy
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A convoy is a group of vehicles, typically motor vehicles or ships, traveling together for mutual support and protection. Often, a convoy is organized with armed defensive support and it may also be used in a non-military sense, for example when driving through remote areas. Arriving at the scene of an emergency with a well-ordered unit. Naval convoys have been in use for centuries, with examples of merchant ships traveling under naval protection dating to the 12th century, the use of organized naval convoys dates from when ships began to be separated into specialist classes and national navies were established. By the French Revolutionary Wars of the late 18th century, effective naval tactics had been developed to ward off pirates. Some convoys contained several hundred merchant ships, the most enduring system of convoys were the Spanish treasure fleets, that sailed from the 1520s until 1790. When merchant ships sailed independently, a privateer could cruise a shipping lane, ships sailing in convoy presented a much smaller target, a convoy was as hard to find as a single ship. As a result of the convoy systems effectiveness, wartime insurance premiums were consistently lower for ships that sailed in convoys, losses of ships travelling out of convoy however were so high that no merchant ship was allowed to sail unescorted. In the early 20th century, the changed the balance of power in convoy battles. Steaming faster than merchant ships and firing at long ranges, a battleship could destroy many ships in a convoy before the others could scatter over the horizon. To protect a convoy against a ship required providing it with an escort of another capital ship. Battleships were the reason that the British Admiralty did not adopt convoy tactics at the start of the first Battle of the Atlantic in World War I. But the German capital ships had been bottled up in the North Sea, the Admiralty took a long time to respond to this change in the tactical position, and in April 1917 convoy was trialled, before being officially introduced in the Atlantic in September 1917. Other arguments against convoy were raised, further, large convoys were thought to overload port resources. Actual analysis of shipping losses in World War I disproved all these arguments, at least so far as they applied to transatlantic, ships sailing in convoys were far less likely to be sunk, even when not provided with any escort at all. The loss of productivity due to delays was small compared with the loss of productivity due to ships being sunk. Ports could deal more easily with convoys because they tended to arrive on schedule, Convoy duty also exposes the escorting warships to the sometimes hazardous conditions of the North Atlantic, with only rare occurrences of visible achievement. The British adopted a system, initially voluntary and later compulsory for almost all merchant ships

4.
USS Vincennes (CA-44)
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USS Vincennes was a United States Navy New Orleans-class cruiser, sunk at the Battle of Savo Island in 1942. She was the ship to bear the name. The New Orleans-class cruisers were the last U. S. cruisers built to the specifications, such ships, with a limit of 10,000 tons standard displacement and 8-inch caliber main guns may be referred to as treaty cruisers. Originally classified a light cruiser when she was authorized, because of her armor, Vincennes was reclassified a heavy cruiser. The term heavy cruiser was not defined until the London Naval Treaty in 1930 and this ship and Quincy were a slightly improved version of the New Orleans-class design. The new cruiser departed from Boston on 19 April 1937 for her shakedown cruise took her to Stockholm, Sweden, Helsinki, Finland, Le Havre, France. Early in January 1938, Vincennes was assigned to Cruiser Division 7, Scouting Force, in March, the ship participated in Fleet Problem XIX in the Hawaiian area before returning to San Pedro, California for operations off the west coast for the remainder of the year. For the next two months, she operated out of Norfolk in the vicinity of the Chesapeake lightship and the drill grounds. On 1 September 1939, the day on which Adolf Hitlers legions marched into Poland and commenced hostilities in Europe, Vincennes lay at anchor off Tompkinsville, New York. She then began conducting Neutrality Patrols off the east coast, ranging into the Caribbean Sea and the Yucatán Channel and she was delayed in the Azores for three days while her code machine was repaired by Lewis Lee Edwards, an enlisted sailor. For his actions, Edwards was offered a commission as an officer, while at anchor at Casablanca, the ship received word of Italys declaration of war upon France, the stab in the back condemned by President Franklin Roosevelt soon thereafter. After departing North African waters on 10 June, the returned to the United States to offload her precious metallic cargo. Conducting Neutrality Patrols from this port, Vincennes patrolled in company with other ships safeguarding neutral waters, Vincennes joined other Fleet units for landing exercises at Culebra, Puerto Rico on 4 February 1941 and sent her 50 ft boats to assist in unloading and troop debarkation drills. She assisted transports McCawley and Wharton in landing men and material before taking station with Fire Support Group II, the cruiser then fired simulated gunfire support operations with her main and secondary batteries in exercises which foreshadowed her future combat role in the South Pacific. For the remainder of February, the ship continued her support operations with Transport Divisions 2 and 7, anchoring on occasion at Mayagüez or Guayanilla. Conducting operations out of Puerto Rican waters, Vincennes called at Pernambuco, Brazil, on 17 March and got underway for Cape Town, South Africa, on the 20th. Arriving to a warm welcome nine days later, the took on a large shipment of gold bullion to pay for arms purchased in the United States by the United Kingdom. En route to New York, she conducted exercises and she patrolled in the Caribbean and off the Atlantic coast of the United States through June

5.
Vought SB2U Vindicator
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The Vought SB2U Vindicator was a carrier-based dive bomber developed for the United States Navy in the 1930s, the first monoplane in this role. Obsolete at the outbreak of World War II, Vindicators still remained in service at the time of the Battle of Midway and it was known as the Chesapeake in Royal Navy service. In 1934, the United States Navy issued a requirement for a new Scout Bomber for carrier use, the specification was issued in two parts, one for a monoplane, and one for a biplane. Vought submitted designs in both categories, which would become the XSB2U-1 and XSB3U-1 respectively, the biplane was considered alongside the monoplane design as a hedge against the U. S. Navys reluctance to pursue the modern configuration. A Pratt & Whitney R-1535 Twin-Wasp Junior radial engine drove a two-blade constant-speed propeller, the SB2U was evaluated against the Brewster XSBA-1, Curtiss XSBC-3, Great Lakes XB2G-1, Grumman XSBF-1 and Northrop XBT-1. All but the Great Lakes and Grumman submissions were ordered into production, designated XSB2U-1, one prototype was ordered on 15 October 1934 and was delivered on 15 April 1936. Accepted for operational evaluation on 2 July 1936, the prototype XSB2U-1, BuNo 9725 and its successful completion of trials led to further orders. The SB2U is prominently featured in the 1941 film Dive Bomber, there were 260 examples of all Vindicator variants produced, and a single example is preserved at the National Museum of Naval Aviation at NAS Pensacola. Vindicators served on the carriers Lexington, Saratoga, Ranger, Air Group Nine, destined for Essex, trained in Vindicators aboard the escort carrier Charger, but they transitioned to the Douglas SBD Dauntless before Essex joined the war. VMSB-131 and VMSB-241 were the only two USMC squadrons that fielded the Marine-specific SB2U-3 between March 1941 and September 1943, vMSB-241s Vindicators saw combat at the Battle of Midway in June 1942. Airmen with experience in modern aircraft spoke disparagingly of SB2Us as vibrators or wind indicators in their later combat assignments. Captain Richard E. Fleming piloted a SB2U-3 Vindicator in an attack on the Japanese cruiser Mikuma on 5 June 1942, based on the SB2U-2, the V-156-F incorporated specific French equipment. As a result, V-156-F-equipped units escadrilles AB1 and AB3 were based ashore when the Battle of France started, AB1 sustained heavy losses while attacking bridges and German ground targets in Northern France, while AB 3s V-156-Fs were briefly engaged against the Italians. By the time of the Armistice, there were only a handful of remaining Voughts in French hands, France had placed an order for a further 50 V-156-Fs in March 1940, with delivery planned from March 1941. Following the defeat of France, this order was taken over by the British government for use by the Royal Navys Fleet Air Arm, fourteen Chesapeakes were used to equip a reformed 811 Naval Air Squadron on 14 July 1941. The squadron, whose crews referred to it as the cheesecake, intended to use them for anti-submarine patrols, and they were earmarked for the escort carrier HMS Archer. By the end of October that year, it had decided that the Chesapeakes were underpowered for the planned duties. Accordingly, they were withdrawn from 811 Squadron in November 1941 for use as training aircraft, XSB2U-1 Single prototype, powered by a 750hp R-1535-78 engine

6.
Wolfpack (naval tactic)
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U-boat movements were controlled by the Befehlshaber der Unterseeboote much more closely than American submarines, which were given tremendous independence once on patrol. With the exception of the orders given by the BdU, U-Boat commanders could attack as they saw fit. Often the U-Boat commanders were given a number of U-Boats that would show up. If their number were sufficiently high compared to the threat of the escorts. Although the wolfpacks proved a threat to Allied shipping, the Allies developed countermeasures to turn the U-boat organization against itself. Most notably was the fact that wolfpacks required extensive radio communication to coordinate the attacks and this left the U-boats vulnerable to a device called the High Frequency Direction Finder, which allowed Allied naval forces to determine the location of the enemy boats transmitting and attack them. Also, effective air cover, both planes with radar, and escort carriers and blimps, allowed U-boats to be spotted as they shadowed a convoy. Swede Momsen devised the tactics and led the first American wolfpack – composed of Cero, Shad, and Grayback – from Midway on 1 October 1943. Wolfpacks fell out of use during the Cold War, modern submarines have far better weapons and underwater speed than those of World War II, so there is no need for them to operate in large groups. Instead, the United States Navy deploys its attack submarines on individual patrols, American ballistic missile submarines have always operated alone, while Soviet ballistic missile submarines operated in well-protected bastions. USS Providence was the first boat to fire its entire load of missiles, such attacks allow the possibility of effective sacrificial boat deployment. B. Potter and Chester W. Nimitz, eds, Sea Power, A Naval History